Kohler-based The Blind Horse Winery announced this week a first-of-its-kind wine release in partnership with cryptocurrency company VaporFi. The Blind Horse Winery’s 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, released this week, features a NFT label from The Bored Ape Yacht Club.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a type of digital certificate saying you own the rights to a specific product, whether that product be music, art or some other physical good. The Bored Ape NFTs were launched by Miami-based startup Yuga Labs in 2021.
Each NFT corresponds to a cartoon ape customized with unique color schemes, facial expressions and outfits. The Bored Ape being used by The Blind Horse Winery was purchased on Jan. 26, 2022, by VaporFi for $246,000 and has been licensed to The Blind Horse for a one-time release. The Bored Ape NFTs have sold for as much as $420,430 each.
“This is a notable offering for both industries,” said Thomas Nye, general manager and master winemaker of The Blind Horse Restaurant & Winery. “The Blind Horse continually seeks opportunities to partner with new and emerging sectors and to differentiate ourselves with innovative concepts.”
The collaboration between The Blind Horse and VaporFi began in March when Nye reached out to the VaporFi leadership team, seeking an opportunity to release an NFT-labeled wine. Both VaporFi and The Blind Horse looking for ways to explore a partnership between a cryptocurrency company and a traditional company.
“This is a collector’s item for both wine and crypto enthusiasts and will be the centerpiece of my wine collection at home. Partnering with one of the best crypto companies in the space, I was thrilled that VaporFi shared my vision,” said Nye. “I’m certain that we will see more collaborations of this type, where off chain companies and on chain businesses find innovative ways to work together. Decentralized finance and crypto is so new that it’s difficult to envision how it will all come together to impact our lives, but I do think that blockchain technology’s impact on traditional business is inevitable.”
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon wine is made from a blend of Cabernet/Malbec/Petite Verdot. The wine was aged for three years in French and American Oak barrels with a concentrated blackberry bouquet with hints of dark plum and vanilla on the finish.
